A driver critically injured in Monday’s rollover crash on C-470 north of the Alameda interchange has died, following the death of her 8-year-old daughter at the accident scene.

Denver resident Lynn Brower, 40, was taken to St. Anthony Hospital and was pronounced dead hours after the crash at 7:45 p.m., the coroner’s office said. Brower and her daughter, Mariah, were heading south on C-470 when their Ford Explorer collided with another car. The SUV consequently tumbled down the hillside next to the highway.

State Rep. Jim Kerr calls his path to politics a chance event, one he did not foresee during his lengthy career in the automotive service industry. The House District 28 incumbent is up for re-election this year, and he says he holds an edge over Democratic challenger Steve Harvey, citing his voting history as a “common sense” legislator.

Kerr, 66, who was initially appointed by a vacancy committee to replace outgoing Rep. Don Lee in 2005, said he developed a taste for local politics after attending a caucus.

Jefferson County Assessor Jim Everson anticipated a tsunami of protests in 2009, suspecting that higher-than-expected property-tax valuations would befuddle homeowners.

But the wave never came.

His office prepared well ahead of time for the protests, he said. It sent notices to property owners, hoping that would brace them for potentially disappointing valuations, which were based on home-sales figures from June 2008, when houses fetched more of a premium.

Michael Shawn Kearns, 52, a retired military intelligence officer with no previous experience in elected office, has launched a low-key campaign as an unaffiliated, write-in candidate in the 6th Congressional District, which includes Evergreen.

Other candidates in the running are incumbent Republican Mike Coffman, Libertarian Rob McNealy of Aurora and Democrat John Flerlage of Littleton.

House District 22 challenger Democrat Chris Radeff has been practicing law for 16 years, experience that she says makes her an ideal candidate for the state legislature.

As a family-law attorney, the Lakewood resident has guided hundreds of families through divorce, with most ending in amicable settlements, she said. And though she openly plugs her negotiation skills, she also cites years of running a successful small business as indicative of economic aptitude.

Two-term Republican state Rep. Ken Summers has spent more than three decades building a career in Christian-service organizations.

The Colorado native and longtime Lakewood resident began work as an associate pastor at a Pentecostal church in 1978, and he was most recently hired as executive director of Teen Challenge of the Rocky Mountains, a Christianity-based program for “those with life-controlling problems.”